Newsflash: Baseball isn’t Over Yet. Well, it is, But You Know What I Mean.

New Reds mascot: Foulout, the red teardrop of baseball sadness.

It lasted until July-ish this year, but man, the wheels fell off something fierce this season, didn’t they?  I can’t really bring myself to write any more about it for fear of running through a plate glass window.  There is, however, some quick business to attend to:

Reds blow four-run lead

There.  Fixed that for you, Enquirer.  You can just mail a check my way.

I honestly wish I could say that it was fun while it lasted, but it just wasn’t.  This season was pretty much nothing more than waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop.  The boys made it “exciting” for a couple months, and then then inevitable happened.  All isn’t right with the world, but at least we’re getting what we expected.  Now, I’m off to ignore baseball again this year.

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Front pg. thumb:http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottish/ / CC BY 2.0
Photo credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/littlesister/ / CC BY 2.0

Casinos in Ohio: There’s Ballot Language Now

The AP reported yesterday that the Ohio Ballot Board approved some language for the casino bill that we’ve talked about a couple times over the past month or so.

Here’s the petition that got approved.

There are a couple reasons that I see why folks should oppose this amendment.  First, the locations of the casinos themselves would serve to ruin whatever progress downtown has made over the last few years.  There’s no convincing evidence that I’ve seen that successfully argues for the actual (or perceived) improvement and/or growth of an urban neighborhood after a casino is built in it.

Second, I’m not certain that the money that will be made from the casino will be as much as is expected–is it really prudent to build a casino when the economy’s still basically a smoldering shitpile?  There’s certainly evidence showing that casinos (at least marginally) improve the economies of local governments, but there’s not any to show that they improve the micro-economies of individual families–quite the contrary.

To boot, casinos and gambling have been voted down time and time again in Ohio, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.  The language is never just right, the folks supporting it tend to have their hands in a few too many pots (which is to say, they tend to be scumbags),  the supporting research is never convincing enough, and the new income for the city could possibly hurt the income for other community staples.

On the flipside: JOBS.  MONEY for the city’s $28 million budget hole.  Hard to argue with those.  Unless, of course, the jobs are crap and the money’s less than expected.

The arguments, of course, are potentially endless here, and there are two or three terrible arguments for every good one (mine are all awesome,of course, but I digress).  I’m curious to know if anyone out there supports a casino downtown–why would you like to see one?  Why do you think it will achieve what the bill sets out to achieve?  How much money do you see yourself spending blowing in a year at a downtown casino?

Kevin Brown’s Adrenal Glands are Manlier Than You Are

The Enquirer ran this story about a 25 year old man named KEVIN BROWN this morning.  Why’s his name in all caps?  Because he LIFTED A CAR off someone–we decided that if you’ve managed to save a life because of the combination of your giant balls and extreme strength, you get your name in all caps for the rest of forever.  The story said he had help from some other mystery man, but it’s necessary to give credit to someone, and that someone is KEVIN BROWN.

So how did nature make it possible for KEVIN BROWN to pick this piece of machinery up?  Easy.  Adrenaline.  Which is something we’ve all heard of before, right?  So, how does this actually work?

It’s a difficult proposition explaining this kind of thing with any sort of scientific precision, because these sorts of situations arise without warning and apparently, in order to achieve the adrenaline levels necessary to be able to pick up a big-ass car, some shit really has to be happening–like live-or-die stuff.  Essentially, though, here’s what happens: the hypothalamus senses the stressor (i.e., the dude under the car), then tells your adrenal gland to release a bunch of adrenaline.  The adrenaline, among other things, contracts the muscles, tightens the tendons and allows blood to flow more easily through the body.

All this adds up to the probability that in times of extreme danger, like the one KEVIN BROWN encountered, that your muscles can contract so much that they’re actually able to perform abnormal feats of strength, like lifting cars off of people.

The story, though, does leave a couple questions.  First, how did the guy get pinned under the car in the first place?  Second, why are the details of BROWN’s bonus at his job in the story?  Finally, WHAT KIND OF CAR WAS IT?  “An old four-door car” just doesn’t cut it here.  Those can vary in size pretty greatly.  A 1987 Plymouth Sundance isn’t nearly as impressive as a 1978 Sedan deVille, for example.  COME ON.

FOLLOWUP: Gannett Will Be Consolidating Ad Production into Des Moines and Indianapolis

source: ebaumsworld

A couple weeks back, I hammered out a post noting that some Gannett production, like copyediting and layout work, is being consolidated out of Asheville, NC and Greenville, SC into Louisville.  Whelp, there’s more.  Gannettoid.com is reporting that the aftermath of a bigwig meeting in Des Moines (pro. Dess Moe-een-ess for you amateurs) left much of the ad production for many papers, none of which were named, up for regional consolidation to Des Moines and Indianapolis.

Much like the last time we ran a similar story, I’m not certain what, if anything this means for The Cincinnati Enquirer, other than its parent company is streamlining production across the board.  If the Enquirer is affected, though, you can bet it won’t be in the form of adding employees–and at a minimum, those folks’ll be commuting to Indianapolis, probably, because it just doesn’t make logistical sense for Cincinnati to become an ad production hub.

I’m starting to feel left out here–with Louisville becoming a center for consolidation and Indianapolis becoming an ad production hub, where’s the Nati love?

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Front pg. thumb:http://www.flickr.com/photos/inju/ / CC BY 2.0

UFC 101 Recap – The Unbeatables Emerge

UFC 101 was overall an exciting card.  A number of things are evident after last Saturday’s broadcast:

1) Anderson Silva is one of the scariest men alive. His dismantling of Forest Griffin was as complete as it was embarrassing and Forest’s post-fight run to the locker room is really much ado about nothing.  He has now won 10 consecutive fights in the UFC (more than any other fighter in history), and all against top-flight opponents.  The talk of Silva being the best pound-for-pound fighter in MMA has gained quite a bit of strength.

As for the future, Silva is still the title holder at 185lbs.  His close friend Lyoto Machida holds the strap in the 205lb division.  Seeing Silva dismantle several 205lb standouts leads to the natural question – Will Silva challenge Machida for the 205lb championship, and attempt to hold both titles simultaneously?  We turn to Silva’s interview on graciemag.com for the answer:

Interviewer: There’s already speculation regarding a title challenge for the category above yours (light heavyweight), against Brazilian Lyoto Machida. You said after the fight your problem is to deal with middleweights and, beyond that, Lyoto is your friend. Could this fight really end up happening?

Anderson Silva: There’s no point in even asking. Of course I would never face Lyoto. We have a code of honor and, besides being friends, we’re like brothers. It will never happen.

Dana White insists he can “make the fight happen” – probably through paying some sort of outrageous salary – so we’ll see how Silva actually holds up.  In the meantime, his next opponent is likely a title defense at 185lbs versus Dan Henderson.

2)  BJ Penn is a monster at 155lbs. He dismantled every aspect of KenFlo’s game.  His standup was more precise, his footwork and head movement was better.  Despite Joe Rogan’s comments to the contrary, his cardio looked great and he never looked gassed.  And, as evidenced by his late (4th round) submission victory, his jiu-jitsu was better, too.  BJ has never lost a fight at 155lbs, and if his performances continue to look like this, he’ll stay that way until his body is simply too old to compete.

I can only hope that Penn’s next fight will be against Diego Sanchez.  I think Sanchez is a creepy, overrated nutball and I can’t wait to see Penn tap him out.

3) UFC 101 was a mixed bag. Lots of decisions on the night (3 of the 6 televised fights) does not usually make for an entertaining PPV.  Despite picking the fight incorrectly I was amused by Neer vs Pellegrino most of all.  If you couldn’t tell from the broadcast, Neer was constantly running his mouth while laying on his back being pummeled (and eventually losing).  At one point, Pellegrino actually open-hand slapped Neer in the face for the insults.  That’s comedy, folks.

Grove and Almeida both looked mediocre in route to their decision, and although the Sadollah vs Hendricks fight was arguably stopped early, it certainly didn’t look like Amir was doing anything to defend himself from the ref’s perspective, so there ya go.

I also plugged the undercard fight on the between Sakara and Leites.  The result was another extremely boring decision in Sakara’s favor, and Leites was released by the UFC for the trouble.  Also cut from the UFC’s ranks after UFC 101 losses were George Roop, Tamdan McCrory, and Dan Cramer.

Next up, UFC 102 features what would have been a superfight five years ago, a heavyweight contest between Randy Couture (16-9) and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (31-5).  Other highlights include two of the best BJJ practitioners in professional MMA – undefeated Demian Maia (versus the veteran Nate Marquardt) and  Wilson Gouveia (versus TUF standout Ed Herman).  Tune in next time, kids.

My UFC 101 selections added to my total bring me to 16-5 for lifetime public picks.

The Cincinnati Man Fake Internet Socializes, You Know

I haven’t mentioned it before, but you can get occasional updates about our posts and events and whatnot at our facebook page.  Why not join up with the tens of other people who became fans?

We also do the Twitter thing here here and here, where you can get up-to-the moment TCM updates and news about upcoming events.  Perhaps more importantly, you can send tips, suggestions, and grievances our way and we’ll see it right away.  Not that we’ll respond, but you know.